Categories: CROI 2017Continued success of three-drug, six-month regimen introduces potential first gold standard of XDR-TB care SEATTLE – With a mortality rate of about 75 percent, tuberculosis that is extensively resistant to first and second-line treatments — XDR-TB — has left physicians with little choice aside from what Dr. Francesca Conradie calls the “kitchen sink” approach. That […](Read more…)

Scientific American: Superbug Explosion Triggers U.N. General Assembly Meeting “…The threat of antibiotic resistance has become so dire that the United Nations General Assembly is holding a meeting to discuss it this month in New York City. Although WHO has been sounding the alarm on antibiotic resistance for years, this month’s high-level U.N. meeting represents…More

Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: Addressing development of tuberculosis diagnostics and drugs is critical to global antimicrobial resistance response, review finds Antigone Barton, senior writer and editor of “Science Speaks,” discusses findings and recommendations from the final report of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. The report also specifically examines the challenges posed by…More

The Economist: When the drugs don’t work “…Resistance to antimicrobial medicines, such as antibiotics and antimalarials, is caused by the survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, fit microbes mean unfit human beings. … Combining policies to accomplish many things at once demands political leadership, but recent global campaigns against HIV/AIDS and malaria show that it is…More

Ramanan Laxminarayan,Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy Antibiotic resistance has been making headlines lately, and for good reason: the identification of new resistance genes, rising resistance rates and widespread public misunderstanding of the problem are all causes for concern about the growing proliferation of drug-resistant “superbugs.” But in many low- and middle-income countries, millions of people lack access to antibiotics and common infections like pneumonia pose a far greater threat than any superbug. In a new Lancet study, researchers at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), working with collaborators in the UK and South Africa, estimated that in 101 countries, improved access to antibiotics could avert approximately three-fourths of the deaths of children under five caused by pneumonia alone each year—averting about 455,000 deaths annually. Lack of access to antibiotics is further complicated by rising resistance rates. Overuse of these powerful drugs can lead to the development of drug-resistant bacteria, which renders certain antibiotics powerless to fight infection.

Financial Times: O’Neill ‘superbug’ review promotes wider use of vaccines “Vaccines should be used more widely in health care and agriculture as an alternative to antibiotics, according to a U.K.-led review into the problem of drug-resistant ‘superbugs.’ Lord Jim O’Neill, the Treasury minister and former Goldman Sachs economist heading the panel, said vaccines were a…More

Project Syndicate: Vaccines Versus Superbugs Jim O’Neill, commercial secretary to the U.K. Treasury, honorary professor of economics at Manchester University, visiting research fellow at Bruegel, and chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. “…[W]e are not moving fast enough to develop the types of vaccines that could be used to prevent antimicrobial resistance. … Maximizing…More

The number of people who die from malaria each year fell by nearly half, from 839,000 in 2000 to 438,000 in 2015, according to the World Health Organization. While the 214 million new cases in 2015 mean there is a long way to go to achieve global elimination, more than half of the 106 endemic

Slate: The World Can Eliminate Malaria “…The eradication of malaria is theoretically possible, but the last mile of this race is likely to be the toughest, in large part because of the speed of drug resistance. … Despite the looming challenges, there’s still optimism on the ground…” (Keating, 1/5).

In their second post honoring World Malaria Day, Kasturi Haldar, Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Pathogens, and Margaret Phillips comment on the challenges for drug development and the path to malaria control, elimination and eradication. For additional analysis, see their first linked … Continue reading »The post Drugs for Malaria: Need to Overcome Resistance to Artemisinins and Eliminate All Stages of Parasites in a Wide Range of Transmission and Disease Settings appeared first on Speaking of Medicine.

Abstract. In endemic countries with soil-transmitted helminths mass drug administration with albendazole or mebendazole are being implemented as a control strategy. However, it is well known in veterinary helminths that the use of the same benzimidazole drugs can place selection on the β-tubulin gene, leading to resistance. Given the concern that resistance could arise in human soil-transmitted helminths, there is an urgent need to develop accurate diagnostic tools for monitoring resistance. In this study, we developed molecular assays to detect putative resistance genetic changes in Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworms, and we optimized an egg hatch assay for the canine hookworm Ancylostoma caninum and applied it to Necator americanus.